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Wednesday, 18 May 2016

The quiver dispute

MMOs hide the true identity of players behind in-game avatars, and are usually heralded for this, it being harder to form prejudices and all. At the same time, though, this lack of information forms a great source of miscommunication.

I was questing in Mirkwood when my eye fell upon a cosmetic quiver that I had failed to sell on the auction house the day before. Following LOTRO custom, I decided to give it away in world chat.

"Uh, well, yes, I can, technically," I thought, "but why would I?" I couldn't help but pose myself that question when I read their statement.

Mere seconds later, an elf champion approached me.

Elf champion: "is the quiver gone?"

"Not yet", I answered truthfully. "Would you use it?"
I didn't want to give it away to some random who'd sell it."yes pls""Then it's yours."
I sent the quiver to the elf champion.

What should I tell the dorf guardian, though? He would probably accept it if I'd say someone beat him to it, but I don't like lying. In a cruel moment of honesty, I decided to for the Dutch approach of telling the blunt truth.

Ravereth: "Sorry, someone else asked nicer."

The dorf was infuriated that they had not gotten the precious quiver they now felt entitled to.

Dorf guardian: "ugh? lool"

Dorf guardian: "yh remember next time when u see my name to blow me before u ask for something from world chat that applies to your alts"

You are now ignoring "Dorf guardian". I did not feel wasting energy in pointless arguments. Sometimes MMOs make me want to close the curtains and stay in bed all day.

10 comments
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Probably would have best not to speak to him at all. I find silence works very well in most situations because there are so many reasons why someone might not see a a tell. I know I miss loads of them because i tab in and out so much.

I played LotRO for about six months straight a few years back and it was my impression that, far from the helpful, laid-back vibe it seems to have a reputation for, the general feel of open-channel chat was as likely to be snide, aggressive and unpleasant. That was on one of the RP servers, too.

I had no idea you'd been playing LOTRO, and that for 6 months straight! Snide, aggressive and unpleasant unfortunately seem to sum up LOTRO world chat pretty well. Of course, *put on granny voice*, everything used to be better back in the day. Back when the game was still pay to play, the community was a lot friendlier, as I suspect is the case for a lot of MMOs that went free-to-play (you'll be able to say more about that where GW2 is concerned). With LOTRO, it became increasingly bad when world chat was added: before that, chat was organized regionally and that somehow kept the vitriol out. Now the trolls and wannabe standup comedians camp world chat. I like to hide world chat, but unfortunately it's also where trade offers, offers for free stuff and requests for pickup groups are posted, so I can't always.

Those helpful people are still out there, though, even though they may be less vocal in world chat. I've been offered help with quests, transportation (hunters can instant travel and take people with them, captains can summon anywhere in the world with a summoning horn) and even received two first age symbols (used to craft the most powerful legendary weapons in the game) from a friend and a random stranger when I returned to the game half a year ago. And of course, there's the tendency to give stuff away in world chat in the first place. I tried that once in SWTOR and got laughed at; "just vendor it". -_-

What's also very LOTRO-y, though, is the generally low interest in gameplay and conservationist attitude towards change. On many occasions I've heard people defend years old playstyles (that usually don't work anymore due to huge in-game balancing changes), their argument being "I've always played like this, and it worked out fine". Or "I've played this class for x years; so obviously I know better". Which can be excruciating at times.

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience like that. But like Baghuss at times like this I prefer to just ignore a rude person like that and go on my way. It is just not worth exchanging words with someone like that.

You guys are probably right, but intentionally not answering also does not feel right by me. Yes, I'm always overthinking these kind of situations!

The thing was, judging from only that first sentence I wasn't entirely sure whether they were indeed just rude and entitled, or that it was intended friendly. If someone would say it friendly, beaming with a big smile, it would've been different. Unfortunately, you can't really tell when there's only typed characters. After those last sentences, though, I'm happy the elf champion got that accursed quiver.

Ugh, what a jerk! Good for you, being honest about it though. I doubt anything will really make him stop being awful, but I don't like letting people get away with being rude to me. I love the aanonymity of MMOs, but I also hate the fact that people take advantage of that and say some truly heinous things to other people simply because they're hidden behind a computer screen. I try to treat people with respect whether it's in-person or in-game, but some people just suck. Sorry that little punk made you feel like that, friend:(

I love how easy it is to hook up with others in MMOs. I'm a bit of a naive idealist, though: I don't understand why people aren't just getting along when they're meeting others who are just as passionate about their hobby. Like you, I try to treat people in games with the same respect as I do outside of games. Don't worry, I wasn't super upset by what the dorf guardian said or anything, I unlearned that a long while ago; I just get disappointed and depressed by this particular part of the MMO population.

I'm not sure if being honest was the right thing to do, but I don't like people walk over me.

I find way more people are good natured than not, if not necessarily more intelligible. The dorfs make an impression way out of line with their numbers in the way a restaurant dinner you find a hair in is as memorable as 5 perfectly good ones